Friday, October 17, 2014

Ron Klain, a former chief of staff for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joseph R. Biden Jr., has been named by President Barack Obama to be the Ebola Czar. He was the lead Democratic lawyer for Gore during the 2000 election recount.

Klain was later played by Kevin Spacey in the HBO drama Recount about the disputed contest.

The name Klain

is one of the most famous of all surnames of Germanic origins. It is a nickname, and is recorded in some fifty spellings ranging from Klein, Kleyn, and Cline, to De Cleyne, Kleinermann, and Klejna, and with many compounds such as Kleinbaum and Kleinhandler. However spelled the origination is pre-7th century A.D., and the derivation is from the words klein or kleyne meaning "small." In ancient times before the introduction of surnames in about the 12th century, nicknames, particulary those of endearment were very popular. In this case the word was probably applied to the youngest member of a family, although it could also have applied to one of small stature or even the reverse! Pre-medieval humor was both robust and personalized, so "Klain"/"Klein" may on occasion have been a nickname for a large person! The surname is one of the first ever recorded anywhere, and early examples taken from the authentic German charters and registers of the period, confirm its popularity. Source.

Coincidentally, Kevin Spacey played Major Casey Schuler in Outbreak (released March 10, 1995), who dies of an Ebola-like virus. The film focuses on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus called Motaba in Zaire and later in a small fictional town of Cedar Creek, California, in the United States of America.

Klain was born on August 8, 1961 in Indianapolis, He is a member of the DayBreak Boys Band and grew up in a Jewish home. He graduated from North Central High School in 1979 and was on the school's Brain Game team, which finished as season runner-up. He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University in 1983. In 1987, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was one of several to win the Sears Prize for the highest grade point average in 1984–85. While at Harvard Law School, Klain was also an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Source.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Klain served as a law clerk for Justice Byron R. White and worked as an aide in the Senate, as well as in several Democratic campaigns. Klain was chief of staff to Biden from 2009 to 2011, and held the same post from 1995 to 1999 for Gore.

Fiction becomes fact?

For those looking for the top high quality, narrative fiction epidemiology (non-Zombie) films to view during this Ebola crisis, I recommend the following: